Planning events, such as golf tournaments, can be a challenging task. Currently, there are no consolidated vehicles for golf players and organizations to organize and register for golf events. Golf events often include competitive events, fun events, social and professional networking events, and charity events. Many organizations including corporations, small businesses, golf leagues, and charitable organizations find it difficult to coordinate and market events. Such organizations may be limiting their marketing potential by only using personal or internal networks. The marketing and organization of these events also consumes the time and resources of the event organizers. A system is needed to provide a centralized forum that allows users to view and register for events.
One of the main issues posed by event organizers is the registration process. Specifically, registration fee collection can be a burden on golf event organizers. Oftentimes, participants are required to directly pay the business, charitable organization, or individual who is organizing the golf event or tournament in-person before the event or on the day of the event at the golf course. By allowing players to pay on the day of the event, the organizer hosting the event and the golf course that the event is located at are presented with the financial risk of registered players not showing up and not paying. Additionally, the collection of registration fees at the event can be time consuming and the hosting organization and golf course may not be aware of who has paid and who has not paid in real-time, further reducing efficiency because tee times and pairings may have to be adjusted.
Another issue presented by organizing event is pairing players and placing players into flights according golfers skill levels and/or handicap. A player's handicap is a numerical measurement of the player's golfing ability. A handicap is generally approximates how many strokes above or below par a player can be expected to score. A number of factors have been used to calculate a player's handicap, including course distance, course difficulty, and slope rating. Unfortunately, there are a significant number of other potential factors that may affect a player's handicap that are not included in traditional handicap calculations.
Another issue presented to golf event organizers is that sponsors do not get exposure in return for their donation or fee. Golf event organizers, especially charitable organizations and businesses, rely on the revenue generated by selling sponsorships for various aspects of a tournament. A common example of this is hole sponsorships. Insufficient exposure may lead to less hole sponsorships and lower hole sponsor ship values, thus resulting in less money raised by the tournament.
It is with these and other issues in mind that various aspects of the present disclosure were developed.